{"id":5132,"date":"2022-06-30T15:46:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T06:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/the-vend-of-the-world-explore-nagoyas-eclectic-vending-machines\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:33:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:33:57","slug":"the-vend-of-the-world-explore-nagoyas-eclectic-vending-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/the-vend-of-the-world-explore-nagoyas-eclectic-vending-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vend of The World – Explore Nagoya’s Eclectic Vending Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is there a more convenient country in the world than Japan? The trains run so fast they\u2019re named after bullets, package redelivery can be arranged anytime, and there is an (appropriately named) convenience store on seemingly every corner. But most obviously, the sheer ubiquity of the vending machine makes this country the globe\u2019s most accommodating.<\/p>\n

According to statista.com, Japan has approximately 4.1 million jid\u014dhanbaiki [vending machines], or one for every 30 people. Most of these \u2013 about 2.6 million \u2013 will be drink vending machines selling soda, bottles of tea, and even beer, and they can be found on pretty much every street corner. Insanely, jid\u014dhanbaiki take in about \u00a55 trillion [US$36.7 billion] a year. Put into perspective, that\u2019s about a third of Google\u2019s worldwide advertising revenue. That\u2019s a whole lot of coins going into slots.<\/p>\n

Which begs the question, why are they so popular? Well, I refer you once again to that word \u2018ubiquity,\u2019 as vending machines are absolutely everywhere. Within a five-minute walk from my apartment in Nakamura Ward, just off the top of my head, I can think of ten jid\u014dhanbaiki spots, some of which have multiple machines. Most of these sell a wide array of soft drinks, a couple stock Asahi and Kirin beers, and one has a super old nihonshu<\/em> machine filled with what I presume to be pretty well-fermented sake<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But then, ubiquity as an answer is a bit of a chicken and egg (both of which you can probably find in vending machines in the countryside) scenario because surely they wouldn\u2019t get to be everywhere if there wasn\u2019t a market for them. It is plausible that their sheer convenience is a crucial element of their charm. From the aforementioned punctual trains to the 50,000 conbini <\/em>[convenience stores] that serve the population, Japan loves it when things are easy and close at hand, fetishizing the concept to the degree that in the city, it is considered a suffering to live farther than a ten-minute walk from a subway station. Add this to the fact that Japan is one of the world\u2019s most densely populated developed nations; there is a huge captive audience swarming past these brightly lit machines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Some observers argue that another key reason for the jid\u014dhanbaiki\u2019s popularity is Japan\u2019s famously long working hours, with employees often in the office or on-site for most of the day. However, swanning off to a caf\u00e9, or clocking off at your allotted time, is very much not the done thing because if the boss is still in situ, you bloody well be. However, if you wanted to grab a drink from the vending machine down the street, no one would bat an eyelid. In fact, at any point in the day, you are likely to \u2013 almost literally \u2013 bump into a group of tradies squatting around a vending machine, chugging cans of coffee. And yes, canned coffee is very much a thing here.<\/p>\n

Personally, I think that vending machines are so popular due to a combination of the previously mentioned convenience and price. While things are generally cheap in modern conbinis, initially, vending machines were mostly \u2018one coin\u2019 (again, for convenience\u2019s sake), and drinks cost either \u00a550 or \u00a5100. Today you can still find vending machines at these prices, often much less than what you might pay in stores. Also, you can get a lot of weird stuff from them all around Nagoya.<\/p>\n

Ice cream<\/h2>\n

Do you remember when, as a kid, you would spend the summer holidays with your ears forever cocked as you prayed for the arrival of the ice cream van? Then the crushing despair as you sprinted out of the house too late, just in time to see him sail down the street?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not a problem here, as you can grab an ice cream at almost any time. You can find seventeen Ice machines everywhere, often at train stations such as Kanayama; for some reason, I\u2019ve never quite fathomed.<\/p>\n

Dashi<\/h2>\n

This\u00a0dashi, among the Nagoya\u2019s Eclectic Vending Machines, is the one that makes the least sense to me. Admittedly, I am not massively keen on dashi<\/em>, a stock made of bonito (a fish similar to mackerel) that goes into many Japanese dishes and stinks to high heaven. But seriously, how often do you think, \u201coh, I\u2019m out of dashi, better pop to the jid\u014dhanbaiki\u201d?<\/p>\n

\"\"Should I get a cheap one? No, I\u2019ll spend \u00a5500 on the one that has the actual fish in it.\u201d Hopefully, no unsuspecting foreigner mistakes it for a bottle of mineral water\u2026<\/p>\n

Hot sauce<\/h2>\n

Summer is ridiculously hot in Japan, and though I try to restrict my use of plastic bottles for environmental reasons, sometimes, when out and about, I find myself sweating buckets and drawn to the icy cold drinks vending machines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My nightmare is that I, vision obscured by sweat, reach for a bottle of hot sriracha sauce by accident. Mind you; it\u2019d be better than the dashi.<\/p>\n

Gentlemen\u2019s Assistance<\/h2>\n

There comes a time in many a man\u2019s life when, due to stress, age, or overindulgence in Asahi Superdry, he cannot perform as well as he would wish. For some, the remedy is a frank discussion with their loved ones, while for others, it is to purchase little blue pills.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Others go to the vending machine in Osu that sells snake and turtle extracts. The turtle blood is the best stuff. Um, so I\u2019ve been told.<\/p>\n

Booze<\/h2>\n

I spent so much of my teenage life hanging around outside Mr. Lee\u2019s corner shop, haranguing passing-by adults into buying me a beer so cheap and strong that a sniff could knock you on yer bum,\u00a0 that I probably should have paid council tax.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Japanese teenagers presumably don\u2019t have such problems, as many of these magical machines \u2013 selling beer, chuhai<\/em> [wine coolers], and nihonshu \u2013 require no ID.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Images by Mark Guthrie
\nImage: sriracha by Hunter Byron Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there a more convenient country in the world than Japan? The trains run so fast they\u2019re named after bullets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,42],"tags":[83,316,100,486],"class_list":["post-5132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-dining","category-nagoya-2","tag-aichi-prefecture","tag-japanese-culture","tag-nagoya-city","tag-vending-machines"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49972,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132\/revisions\/49972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}